The present invention relates to a disc player having a magazine for holding a plurality of discs, and which is capable of continuous playback of discs from the magazine. In particular, the disc player of the present invention has a magazine with a securing mechanism for preventing displacement of discs within the magazine due to vibration or inclination of the disc player.
The present application is a continuation-in-part of prior filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/253,887, filed Jun. 3, 1994.
The preferred embodiment of the device disclosed in the parent application, copending herewith, includes a disc player in which a security device prevents vibrations from moving discs within a magazine. In that device, upper and lower disc-lock shafts engage disc spindle holes and the carriages which support each disc. A closable gap between the upper and lower disc-lock shafts is used, when opened, to pass a single disc from the magazine into playback and eject positions.
A drawback of the above is that the mechanism which closes the gap between the upper and lower disc-lock shafts only does so during the eject mode of operation. This created a difficulty in that the security mechanism ineffective during playback and stop modes.
A further drawback of the above is that the first carriage, located at the lower end of the magazine, has a first 12 cm diameter cavity and a second 8 cm cavity for mounting large and small discs, respectively. When the first carriage is disposed in the gap between the upper and lower disc-lock shafts, the shafts do not pierce effectively the spindle hole in the disc. This is not a problem with a 12 cm in the carriage, since the depression in the carriage, together with the underside of the next-higher carriage, prevents unwanted motion of the 12 cm disc. With an 8 cm disc in the second 8 cm cavity in the carriage, vibration or incline of the device could dislodge the disc from the 8 cm cavity into the 12 cm cavity. In some cases this can jam the disc player components and damage the disc.